The San Diego Padres' ongoing quest for a World Series (or at least a playoff title). "You know that many runners enter a race, but only one of them wins the prize. So run to win! Athletes work hard to win a crown that cannot last, but we do it for a crown that will last forever." 1 Corinthians 9:24-25

Don’t Tell Me That We’re Bad

It feels great to defend your team to another baseball fan, doesn’t it?

The Padres had a terrible weekend, and I’m blaming the Pirates. We lost 10-1 on Saturday, and 8-3 yesterday. I truly don’t believe that that was our fault.

On Saturday, the Pirates started off by facing an injured pitcher for two innings, getting three runs off of him. Then they just kept adding on, inning after inning after inning. All the amazing things you’ve heard about this Pirates team? They’re true. They can pitch, and their whole lineup can hit. They are really good. We haven’t seen this in Pittsburgh for a loooooong time, but you’d better believe it. They are playing some excellent ball right now. They were even able to beat the second-in-the-NL-West-amazing Padres!!

Saturday, Zach Duke completely shut us down. Completely, utterly, fully. We were powerless to hit him. We got six hits and one run in the entire game, and he threw 8.1 innings. It was really sad, but Duke was good. Just like his lineup, who was supporting him way more than he needed. We lost 10-1. Yay for the Pirates. They were extremely good.

Sunday. Rubber game. Jake Peavy. Should have been enough for us. We got Jake a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first on Adrian Gonzalez’s seventh homer of the year (and he is not the only good hitter in our garbage bin lineup!!!). It was the longest homer ever hit in Petco Park at 458 feet. He hit that off the Pirates’ pitcher, obviously. Now was that a credit to the pitcher’s bad pitch, or Adrian’s raw power (we have a lot of other guys who have raw power too)? Anyway, it was a huge blast.

My boys weren’t able to support Jake, though. They kept leaving runners in in essential situations, and that came back to bite them. Ohlendorf was pretty good.

The Pirates were good enough to bite back and chip away at Jake, eventually taking the lead on a huge three-run homer. I agree that Jake wasn’t all the way on his game, but the Pirates were able to take advantage of that. Jake is known to make things work even when his stuff isn’t the greatest. But it was the Pirates who were able hit him, and to bring their team back on top.

Were we pathetic? Oh yeah. But it was only because of the Pirates! We are going to play Colorado for three games now. I think we will be a lot better against our NL West rivals who are 3.5 games behind us in the NL West.

Our lineup is good. We made do with what we had. Some of us don’t have millions and millions to build a team (how’s that going for you, Yankees?). Some of us have to go dumpster diving. Some of us have to get the players that nobody’s heard of just to get by. Some of us get to watch really old players and really young players. Some of us don’t have to money to keep players like Trevor Hoffman.

Our center fielders are two excellent ballplayers in Scott Hairston and Jody Gerut. We found Jody in the Venezuelan winter leagues two years ago. He had not played baseball for a few years after having surgery in both knees. Look at him now…a stellar outfielder and he can hit too.

Scott Hairston? Got him from the Diamondbacks near the end of the 2007 season. That was a big mistake on Arizona’s part. They almost lost the division because of it. He’s still going strong.

What about Kevin Kouzmanoff? Sure, he’s getting off to a slow start, but he’s an amazing defender and he’s got some pop.

David Eckstein? This guy has made the lineup so much better than it was last year, it’s incredible! He doesn’t go for the long ball, but he plays hard and he gets done what needs to be done. This guy is amazing! He is certainly an great part of the lineup!

Brian Giles!! This guy has had a slow start as well, but he can hit. His defense has been incredible, especially at PETCO. This guy is a hitter, you should know that.

Chase Headley. He’s a rookie, sure, but he’s going to be a good player. He can bring a lot to the plate.

Nick Hundley probably won’t be as good as a hitter as he is a catcher, but he can run into one once in a while.

We have a lineup. We have a good lineup. Not to mention Adrian Gonzalez of course, but he is not carrying this lineup. He is not the only one who can hit. He has his slumps, his problems.

Pinch-hitters. Both of our pinch-hitters had hits yesterday. We have so many great players. Remember, a player doesn’t have to be well-known to be good.

These Padres can play. We’re good. We just got shut down by the hot Pirates.

We’re 10-8. We are second in the NL West, behind only the Dodgers. In fact, the Padres and the Dodgers are the only teams in the NL West who are over .500.

Wow, ranting is really tiring. That really took a lot out of me. Just don’t tell me that my Padres are “bad” (to put it nicely), OK? We’re not. We may look like it, but we’re not. The Padres and the Pirates are going to be good this year. We’ve both suprised a lot of people. I just wonder how long it will last…for both of these teams.

Tonight we are playing the Rockies for the first time this year. The man who’s been coming through all year and seems more of an ace than Jake, Chris Young, will be starting against Jason Hammell. Hmmm…

ha what a post. I really enjoyed your defense of your team. I was rather harsh on the Padres, but that’s only because I promised to do it in the post I made before the game if the Pirates lineup scored more than 5 runs in that game, and they did, so I followed through. The Padres are certainly not as bad as they looked on Saturday and Sunday, and should compete in the division. I don’t see a playoff birth for either of our teams, but quite possibly winning records. Sorry for being so harsh on the Padres, and keep up the great support of your team. I’d have done the same thing.

Nice rant. That was good stuff. Peavy will come out of his…funk…I guess you’d call it. And Adrian is awesome. I need to figure out what his at-bat music is because it’s way awesome. :)
Jenhttp://ajroxmywhitesox.mlblogs.com

Slight correction. Elijah Dukes plays for Nationals. ZACK Duke won for the Pirates. He seems to be doing quite well for himself, as are the Pirates. Hope the Padres get back on track. Elijah Dukes might be a candidate one day for stealing home, like our BMOC Ellsbury! God Bless, Kaybee!

Much more fun being the underdog. Lower expectations means it’s all the more great when your team out-performs bigger and wealthier teams! The Padres were beaten by a very in-form Pirates this weekend, but they’ve still made a great start to 2009.

Kaybee, I totally agree with you. Ok. I underdstand we have some problems with supporting our starting pitchers. But our boys can hit really, really well. David Ecstein. Great example. Kouz. He bounced back from his slow start. We are not bad. And we never will be. Let’s keep the faith!http://hyunyoung.mlblogs.com

Meta

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.